Oklahoma’s Division of Training, led by far-right Superintendent Ryan Walters, tried to sneak a provision into the state’s social research curriculum that might drive academics to show college students that there have been “discrepancies” within the 2020 presidential election, the Oklahoma Voice reported on Friday.
President Donald Trump and the Republican Occasion have been mendacity for years that the 2020 election was stolen from Expensive Chief. Republicans have made baseless allegations of fraud they’ve by no means supplied any proof for, election deniers have run for workplace explicitly on the platform of creating positive future elections aren’t “stolen,” and Trump himself has led a profitable purge of GOP lawmakers who dared admit that he was flawed for saying the election was stolen and inciting an revolt over it.
However the transfer by the state’s Training Division takes that deceive the following stage, forcing it into the varsity’s curriculum in order that impressionable children view the Large Lie as canon, reasonably than being taught the precise historical past that Trump and his GOP defenders lied about fraud and incited a riot to assist Trump stay in energy regardless of his defeat.
In keeping with the Oklahoma Voice, the brand new curriculum would make highschool college students “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results,” together with “sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”
The Oklahoma Voice reported that Walters absurdly claimed that the brand new curriculum is “not set up to either support or negate a specific outcome in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
“Our standards are designed to teach students how to investigate and calculate the specific details surrounding that (or any) election,” Walters stated in a press release to the outlet. “In order to oppose or support the outcome, a well rounded student should be able to make their own conclusions using publicly available data and details.”
Nevertheless, even placing the concept into children’ heads that there have been “discrepancies” within the 2020 election is a disgusting distortion of the reality and historical past.
The solely factor college students ought to be taught is that Trump and his GOP defenders lied about fraud as a way to clarify away his loss and to spur an rebellion to assist hold him in workplace.
The brand new curriculum isn’t but in place. In keeping with the Oklahoma Voice, the Oklahoma Legislature has 30 legislative days to both approve or reject the change.
“If they do nothing, the proposal would take effect as written, according to state law. Gov. Kevin Stitt would have veto power if a legislative resolution lands on his desk. The current social studies standards remain in effect until new standards are approved,” the Oklahoma Voice reported.
However the Oklahoma Voice reported that GOP leaders within the Legislature aren’t objecting to the brand new curriculum.
“As far as what’s in that curriculum, I have not looked at it yet, and so we’ll circle back and look at it and see exactly what it says,” Senate Professional Tem Lonnie Paxton stated, in response to the Oklahoma Voice. “But that is history. We can always talk about what happened in 2020 and why people felt like they were disenfranchised and also talk about what was good about it, what was bad about it but it’s all part of the discussion.”
Walters has a protracted historical past of utilizing the state’s faculty system to pander to Trump.
In November, Walters tried to drive colleges to indicate a video wherein he criticized the “radical left” and “woke teachers’ unions,” and requested college students to hope for Trump—a blatant violation of the separation of church and state.
And in one other violation of the separation of church and state, Walters additionally tried to buy 55,000 Bibles for Oklahoma colleges, and make sure that one of many Bibles the state may buy was the Bible that Trump endorsed and profited off of. On Monday, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court docket blocked Walters from having the ability to buy the books.
